With new owner, change is coming for the drug’s price—and millions to old owner.

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The pharmaceutical company that drew swift criticism last month for pricing an old, cheap drug at $89,000 per patient, per year has now sold the drug in a lucrative deal. The new owners say a price change is coming.

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“Obviously we’re re-examining the current price... We believe a change needs to be had, but... it’s really too premature to speculate on the price level,” Stuart Peltz, CEO of the new owner, PTC Therapeutics, Inc., said on a conference call to reporters.

PTC announced Thursday that it bought the drug, deflazacort (brand named Emflaza), from Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC. Last month, Marathon announced that it had finally gotten deflazacort approved by the FDA to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare, severe type of muscular dystrophy that mostly affects boys.

Further Reading

Deflazacort has been around for years and is sold overseas as a generic drug. Patients have been able to import a year’s worth for around $1,200. But with the FDA approval, Marathon also earned exclusive rights to sell deflazacort in the US for seven years—dashing plans for continuing cheap imports.

Further Reading

Marathon will get $140 million upfront from the sale. That will come as $75 million in cash and about $65 million in stock. Marathon is also eligible to receive royalties and a one-time $50 million sales-based milestone payment.

PTC has been involved in Duchenne therapies for nearly 20 years. It has its own drug, Translarna, which is available in Europe and is being reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration now.

In an open letter, Marathon’s CEO Jeffrey S. Aronin and his colleagues wrote that they were “proud of the success we achieved” and were “pleased” with the deal. The letter explained the deal by saying:

The best path forward is for PTC to commercialize Emflaza and to bring it to the DMD community. PTC has deep-rooted experience with Duchenne and will build upon the progress Marathon has made to date in securing FDA approval for Emflaza and bringing it to the point of commercialization. PTC provides a broader platform for patient access and is committed to ongoing research to advance the knowledge, diagnosis, and treatment of this rare and fatal genetic disorder.

In a separate press announcement, PTC echoed the sentiment. Mark Rothera, PTC’s CCO, said that the company is “finalizing our commercialization plans and intend to share more information after the transaction closes.”